


Love and Snowflakes

by daisy_is_always_cold



Series: Marvel Oneshots [16]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:15:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26827972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisy_is_always_cold/pseuds/daisy_is_always_cold
Summary: You've loved Tony from afar for quite a while, and now, it appears that he might have feelings for you too.
Relationships: Tony Stark/Reader
Series: Marvel Oneshots [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956661
Kudos: 47





	Love and Snowflakes

You would never admit it to anyone, but you were absolutely, totally, hopelessly in love with Tony Stark. You’d joined the Avengers about three months ago and, in that time, you’d developed feelings for him. Your strategy to deal with these feelings was to avoid him at all costs, which was impossible, of course, because no one can escape the presence that is Tony Stark. 

You spent most of your time in the tower in your room. You hadn’t really made friends with any of the Avengers so it felt pointless to put yourself in an awkward position. The others were worried about you but none of them were brave enough to say it to your face so you all just continued to go about your lives, no relationships, no attachments, nothing. That’s what you wanted, or at least thought you wanted. 

Most of the Avengers left for Christmas. Clint and Natasha went to his farm, Bruce went to see some family that you didn’t know, Thor and Loki returned to Asgard, Steve, Bucky, Sam, and Wanda went to see some of Sam’s family, and somehow, you and Tony ended up being the only two in the tower. Of course, many of the others had offered to take the both of you with them, but you’d politely declined, refusing to put them or yourself in an awkward situation and Tony had claimed he had a bunch of work that he wanted to do while the tower was mostly cleared out. 

You spent your first day after the others’ departure in the common area, for probably the first time ever, reading. You didn’t see Tony all day and decided that that was a good thing. You made yourself some pasta, left enough in the fridge for Tony if he came scavenging for food later, and returned to your room for the evening to curl up with a movie and a mug of tea. 

The second day, you ventured outside of the tower to run some errands and escape the looming emptiness of the large building. You started the morning at a coffee shop with your computer for some writing before you headed to your favorite bookstore to purchase a book that you’d been looking for for a very long time. After that, you headed to the mall to get a couple of last minute gifts and then the post office to send your gifts to some old friends. It was midafternoon when you finished everything that you needed to accomplish for the day, so you decided to stop at the grocery store and pick up a few things to get you through the week. When you arrived back at the tower, you took the elevator up to the common area, your hands full with a variety of bags. The elevator doors opened and revealed a very unhappy Tony Stark. 

“Where the hell were you?” He asked angrily. 

“I just had a few errands to run.” You dropped some bags onto the counter, confused by his anger.

“You have to tell me when you leave the tower, I thought you were abducted!” He exclaimed. 

“Okay, jeez, I figured you wouldn’t even leave the lab while I was gone and there was no reason to tell you.” You started to unpack the grocery bags. “I didn’t realize that it was such a big deal, I’ll make sure to tell you next time.”

He seemed to realize his anger and took a deep breath, as if trying to calm down, “I’m sorry, I just got really worried when you weren’t here, I checked everywhere.” 

“You could’ve just called me, you know, or checked the parking lot to see if there was a car gone.” 

“I know.” He sighed. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine.” You said and turned back to the fridge where you were trying to make room for the chocolate milk that you’d bought at the store. 

“Can I help you?” He asked, approaching the counter. 

“Uhh, sure. Just only touch the bags with the grocery store label on them. I don’t want you accidentally discovering Christmas presents.” 

“Fair enough.” He smiled and got to work. The two of you put away the groceries and you took the rest of your bags up to your room before settling down on the couch with a book. You figured that Tony would head back to his lab or somewhere other than the common area, but he didn’t. Instead, he sat down in a comfortable chair near you with his computer and began typing furiously. You tried to keep your eyes on the words on the page but it was hard to focus with him sitting on the other couch, tapping away at his computer keys. You spent more time watching him than reading. 

After what seemed like hours, you finally got up from your perch. You wandered into the kitchen to make something to eat. You grabbed some pasta and put it in a pot on the stove before opening your book again and returning to the story you had fallen in love with. When the pasta was finished, you made yourself a bowl. 

“You want some?” You said and looked up only to find Tony staring at you. 

“Uh, yeah, sure.” He shrugged, surprised. You made his bowl and walked it over to him before you sat down across from him. You ate your pasta quickly and tried to ignore the fact that you could feel him watching you. You weren’t sure if he was even aware that he was doing it, and you did your best to focus on anything but him. After a while, you gave up on reading, you couldn’t think about anything else except Tony. You climbed the stairs to the floor that housed most of the bedrooms, including yours, and spent the rest of the day hidden in your room. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The next few days passed without much excitement. The two of you continued to spend time doing pretty much anything but spending time with each other. The next time you left the tower, you forgot to let Tony know and when you returned, you faced the great wrath of Tony Stark. 

You really couldn’t figure out why he was so angry, it didn’t make sense. You couldn’t understand why his first instinct was to assume something horrible had happened and to get angry. He repeated a lot of what he had said last time you’d gone out without telling him. The same “I thought you had been abducted!” and “Tell me when you leave!” 

You sighed. 

“I don’t need a babysitter, I’m not a child.” You said, and annoyance dripped from your voice. “I can take care of myself, and last time I checked, I’m an Avenger.”

“Last time I checked, you haven’t been an Avenger that long and you’re still learning.” His tone rose in frustration.

“I don’t need you to save me, I’m not a damsel in distress.” Your voice got louder too. 

“You need someone to look out for you!” He was practically yelling at you.

“I don’t! I’ve got it, I know what I’m doing. I don’t need the great Tony Stark to swoop in and save me!” You were definitely yelling. 

“Yes, you do! You need someone to look out for you! And since you refuse to attempt to create a bond with anyone here, someone’s going to have to make that decision for you. You can’t go through life with nobody close to you, no matter how trained you are, no matter what super powers you might have, you still have to have people to care about you and help you, and yeah, look out for you.” He was yelling too.

“I don’t, Tony, I don’t need someone, and you don’t get to make that decision.” Your voice was a bit quieter now. “No one else needs to die because of me.” You turned and exited the living room. 

“(Y/N)!”

You rushed to your room before he could stop you and locked the door. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Avengers returned from their Christmas vacations to find a silent and hostile house. You had adapted to a completely different schedule that allowed you to avoid Tony. 

You had returned to your usual routine which consisted of staying in your room except for training and meals. And you made sure that if Tony came to a meal, you weren’t there. It took a few days for the others to notice that something was different; you were still avoiding everyone and Tony was still in the lab all the time, but they began to realize that this was worse. Something had happened while they were gone and they became determined to fix it. 

It began with Natasha. She knocked on your door one afternoon and asked if you wanted to make some cookies with her. You couldn’t come up with a good excuse as to why you couldn’t, so you found yourself in the kitchen with Natasha making oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies. Surprisingly, you actually had quite a bit of fun. The two of you sang along to your favorite songs while you made the batter and put batch after batch in the oven and you found yourself smiling and having a good time for the first time in a while. You were setting the second batch on the cooling racks when Tony walked into the common area. It took you a moment to realize that he was there, you were too distracted, but as soon as you set the cookie sheet down, you saw him. 

“Whatcha making?” He asked. You ignored him.

“Cookies.” Natasha said from her spot at the sink where she was watching dishes. 

“Sounds fun.” He smiled, glancing at you. You still didn’t look at him. He decided to try a new tactic. He reached to grab a cookie from the cooling rack and you swatted his hand away with the spatula you were using to get the cookies onto the rack.  
“No,” You smacked him, “Cookies are for people who wait until they’re cool!” You said, a joking tone in your voice. 

He smiled. He’d gotten your attention. And you’d said something to him. He was getting somewhere with you. You returned to your task and didn’t say another word to him. And neither of you saw the smile on Natasha’s face either. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The next person who tried to (a) involve you, and (b) get you and Tony to figure out whatever your issues were was Steve and Bucky. Bucky dragged you to the living room to play Mario Kart and Steve told Tony that he needed someone to teach him how to play a new video game. By the time that you realized what they were trying to do, it was too late. You sighed and sat down to play a very competitive game of Mario Kart. 

It started off simple. The four of you played some of the easy races, but soon, things started to get competitive. You and Tony were so distracted by your need to beat the other that you hardly noticed when Steve left the room, or when Bucky left not long after. Soon, it was just you and Tony trying to prove that you were better than the other at Mario Kart. To be fair, the two of you were about equally matched when it came to Mario Kart. You won DK Mountain and Peach Gardens, he won Maple Treeway and Daisy Circuit. You both continued for hours, not stopping under any circumstances. 

You were on the last lap of Rainbow Road when Clint called you for dinner and you took Tony’s moment of distraction to pass him and win the race. 

“Ha!” You cried. Tony groaned in defeat next to you. “I win!” You exclaimed. “Accept defeat and admit that I’m better than you!”

“No! I was distracted! I was going to win!” 

“But you didn’t win, I did!” You grinned. 

“I’ll leave you two to...whatever this.” Clint gestured in your general decision and turned to exit the room. 

“I want a rematch!” Tony said grumpily. 

“That was the rematch, you dummy! I win!” You stuck your tongue out at him. God, he wanted to kiss you. 

“I’m calling a rematch!” 

“I’m hungry, I’m going to eat dinner!” You dropped your remote. “And I’m going to revel in my victory!” 

“I will beat you at this game, and that’s a promise.” He grumbled. 

“Whatever you say,” you laughed. 

You argued through dinner about your victory and his defeat, and as soon as the dishes were cleared, your argument returned to the living room with a large amount of alcohol. Somehow, as you drank, the argument turned into a conversation, a very drunk conversation. The others had seemingly disappeared hours ago, and you’d both completely lost your filters. Tony learned a lot from you that night, even if you couldn’t remember half of what you said. When you finally parted to head to your individual bedrooms, you were happy. Maybe it was okay that you had fallen for Tony. Just maybe. 

January passed rather quickly and you and Tony slowly began to spend more time with each other. There was no snow. None. The last time it had snowed was in early December, and that was not something you were okay with. You loved snow more than anything, and you were not too happy with it’s apparent disappearance. You began to check the weather once every few days in hopes that you’d see snow, but there was still nothing. It rained once, but that just made you more upset. 

You were in the lab with Tony when it finally happened. You sat at a table near the one that he was working at and did your best to focus on the mission report you were trying to complete on the tablet in front of you. He was trying to put some sort of machine together or something that you didn’t understand. Your eyes were drifting from the work that you didn’t want to complete to things around the lab. Bruce’s clean workspace, the pile of extra parts, Tony. You enjoyed watching him work. There was a sort of focus that he had that you had yet to see anywhere other than when he was in the lab. This was the real him, not the one who hid behind sarcasm. Your eyes continued drifting until they hit the window. The sky was filled with grey clouds and you couldn’t see an inch of clear sky. You could have sworn you saw a snowflake, and then another, and another. You turned back to your work, shaking off what you assumed was your mind playing tricks on you. When you stole another glance at the window, you saw them again: big, thick snowflakes falling from the sky. 

You stood from your chair and rushed to the window. It was snowing, it was really snowing! You stood at the window for a moment, enjoying the sight before you were interrupted. 

“What are you doing?” Tony asked from his spot on the other side of the lab. 

“It’s snowing!” You exclaimed before rushing back across the lab, grabbing Tony’s arm to drag him with you to the roof. “Come on!”   
“What? Where are we going? I was working on something, you know!” His words were filled with confusion as you pulled him into the elevator and hit the button to take you up to the roof. You stepped out onto the roof and delight filled your face. You put your hand out to catch snowflakes while Tony watched from next to you. 

“It finally snowed!” You cried, looking over at him. 

“Yeah, it did,” he smiled and tossed his arm over your shoulder. The two of you stood in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Why do you like snow so much anyway?” 

“I’ve got a lot of good memories with snow.” 

“Really? Like what?” 

“Snowballs, lots of snowballs.” You smiled. “And skiing.”

“I didn’t know you liked skiing.” 

“It’s fun. And you get to watch your friends wipe out.” 

“Of course that’s why you like it.” 

“I do find happiness in the pain of others.” 

“Especially mine.” Tony grimaced, remembering the incident in the lab last week. 

“You’re telling me that it wasn’t funny when you got that glitter bomb in the mail?” 

“There’s still glitter in my hair! And I still don’t know who sent it.” 

“I do.” You tried to stifle your laughter. 

“Who?!” 

“Who do you think? You got that glitter bomb two days after you released a badger in the vents when you knew Clint was in there.”

“I knew it was him!” 

“It wasn’t Clint.” 

“Then who the hell else would it be?” 

“God, she’ll kill me for telling you this. It was Natasha. She likes to pretend she’s above your stupid prank wars.” 

“Damn! Why couldn’t it have been Clint? I’m way too afraid of Natasha to retaliate. How’d you even figure out it was her anyway?”

“I know things.” 

“Well, is there anything else I should know about this prank war?” 

“Nothing that you should know.” You smirked. 

“You’re the worst.”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“So someone has something planned?” 

“Hey, I didn’t say anything.” 

“I’ll figure it out.” 

“Of course you will.” You turned your attentions back to the snow. It was starting to cover the ground now. Tony’s attentions stayed on you. There were snowflakes in your hair and he couldn’t take his eyes off of you. You stood in silence for a while longer before Tony reminded you that it was cold, and neither of you wanted to catch one. 

When you woke in the morning, the snow still hadn’t stopped. Tony handed you your usual cup of coffee and you sat in a chair by the window to watch the snow fall. 

“You do really love it, don’t you.” 

“More than most things.” 

“What do you love more?”

“Oh, y’know, road trips, empty notebooks, learning languages, and—” You stopped yourself before you could finish. You’d almost admitted your true feelings. 

“And...what?” 

“And...nothing. There’s nothing else.” You spoke quickly, trying to avoid dwelling on the topic any longer. 

“You’re lying.” He narrowed his eyes slightly. “You were going to name something else.” 

“No, I wasn’t.” 

“You were.” 

“Was not.” 

“Fine. You don’t have to tell me. But I’ll figure it out.” He teased. “I always do.” 

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” You muttered and headed down for your training session with Steve. 

Perhaps Tony hadn’t figured out the final thing you loved more than snow, but the others, they knew. They’d watched the two of you fall for each other silently, and as much as they found joy in torturing the both of you with that knowledge, they were getting a little sick of the two of you doing this dance. 

“You should tell him.” Steve spoke as you dodged his punch. 

“Or I could just not.” You returned a punch. 

“Or you could.”

“No.” 

“What could go wrong?” 

“Um, he could reject me, I could be humiliated, it could ruin our friendship—” 

“Okay, I get it, many things could go wrong. But things could also go very right.” 

“It’s still a bad idea.” 

“It’s not a bad idea!” 

The two of you continued your bickering and sparring for another hour. Tony, however, spent that hour trying to figure out what to do. He’d been checking to make sure that the surveillance cameras around the tower were working and he’d overheard your conversation with Steve. 

You finished your training session with Steve and took a shower. When you returned to the main area, you found only Tony. 

“How’s it going?” You flopped onto the couch next to him. 

“I figured it out.”

“What? The prank?”

“No, I figured out the other thing that you love.” 

“What?” You asked, slightly nervous. 

“I’m not going to tell you.” He smirked. “I’m going to tell you what I love.” 

“Really? Why?” 

“Because I want to. And because I like torturing you.” 

You sighed. Of course that was his motivation.

“I love coffee.” He started. “And spending time with my friends, and I think, most of all, I love you.” 

“I’m sorry, what?” You thought you must have misheard him.

“I love you.” 

“I- I love you too.” You stuttered out, still in some sort of shock. Before you could even begin to comprehend the situation you were in now, Tony brought his lips to yours. He kissed you deeply, and when you finally separated, you were breathless. 

“I told you I’d figure it out.” 

“I never doubted that you would.” 

“Well, apparently, you love me more than snow.”

“Apparently, I do.” You smirked and kissed him again.


End file.
